Wireless internet service enables traveling professionals to get out of the office and refresh their perspectives with a change of scenery and a good cup of java. It makes sense that, when on the road and needing to do a little work or just take a break, with laptop in tow, they might also want to escape the four walls of their hotel rooms.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is revitalizing its Sheraton brand with a lobby communications hub called the Link@Sheraton, aimed at getting guests out of their rooms to socialize or work, face-to-face or online.

In addition to Microsoft-provided technology and content, a key to the program’s success is Link Café, its food and beverage component. Link Café is a grab-and-go concept Starwood has introduced in four U.S. properties: Chicago, New York City, Phoenix, and Overland Park (Kansas). The next Link Café is set for Denver, Colorado.

The program is part of a $4 billion enhancement to the Sheraton brand throughout North America. Begun in January 2007, it includes $2.3 billion for new hotels, $1.5 billion for renovating existing properties, and more than $400 million in signature brand initiatives such as Link Café.

“Our previous strategy was to take all of our big hotels and put a Starbucks outlet in them,” says Hoyt Harper, Starwood’s senior VP, brand management for Sheraton. “As we thought about it, we realized we had a better opportunity to control the menu selection at different dayparts. So, while we love Starbucks and serve it at Link Café, we wanted to brand it as our own concept and manage the F&B opportunities.”

Sheraton’s evaluation of the concept included “everything from beverage revenue per occupied room to covers at different dayparts,” Harper recounts. “For example, with the new grab-and-go concept, we expect to cover a higher percentage of breakfast. When we originally rolled out Link Café, we didn’t have breakfast sandwiches, but our customers said they wanted them, so we are adjusting the menus.”

There is no minimum revenue mark that the cafés must hit, Harper notes. “We have actually reduced the square footage of our restaurant operations, and in two of the markets— Overland Park and New York—our customer satisfaction with food and beverage has gone up. We have saved money by reducing our operating costs. The idea is to have a less labor-intensive operation that meets or exceeds guests’ needs.”

The café’s morning menu includes signature items such as a ham and Gruyère corn muffin, yogurt peach swirl coffee cake, plus fruit, yogurt, and a selection of pastries, muffins, scones, croissants, Danish, and bagels. After breakfast, guests can choose sandwiches including heirloom tomato, grilled portobello mushroom, and fresh mozzarella with basil pesto and arugula on La Baccia bread, and roasted turkey with vineripened tomato, red leaf lettuce, and tomato basil aioli on multi-grain bread.

Starwood is “constantly” tweaking the menu, says Harper, who predicts “regional or property-type differences” at Sheraton properties. “We have been using Pepsi products. We are also considering adult beverages. Starbucks cannot serve Starbucks liqueur, for example, but we could.”

“What [Link Café] has done is provide an alternative,” says Menze Heroian, VP of F&B for Tishman Hotel Corporation, who works out of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. The 25-seat Link Café opened there last December and is generating sales of $1,500 a day, Heroian says. “We open at 6 a.m., before our breakfast restaurant, so if people are going to the airport early, they can grab something and be off.”

Howard Riell is a Las Vegas-based veteran editor who has written for nearly 140 business and consumer magazines, e-zines, blogs, newspapers, and newsletters.